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IPFS News Link • Technology: Computer Hardware

Forensic Data Techs Do The Impossible - Shuttle Columbia's Melted Hard Drives

• Associated Press
Destroying data now requires explosives.

2 Comments in Response to

Comment by Chip Saunders
Entered on:

That may all be true,...but I default to one of my favorite maxims (as in a quote, not a machinegun),..."There is no condition of human relations which cannot be solved by a suitable application of high explosives."

Comment by Fascist Nation
Entered on:
It doesn't require explosives. Just some safety glasses and rubber gloves, a bucket with some pool acid, a screw driver to expose the drive platters and a 10 minute soak. Rinse before disposing. Or physically remove the drive platters and scrape the crap out of them (i.e., belt sander) [though bits of data may remain]. Using one of those 7 pass or 35 pass overwrite programs will destroy most of the drive info (but not necessarily all due to the nature of how tracks are written and overwritten to the disk) -- and it takes forever with today's massive drives.

CDs and DVD have similar security concerns. One can crosscut shred them making recovery harder and in many cases impossible, but only a through method of destroying all of the written tracks will ensure complete destruction. Baking works. But toxic fumes from the plastic may be present (i.e., recommend doing it outside).



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